NOVANEWS
Dear Friends,
The cease fire held for about 8 hours. Then Israel did it again! Killed another 2 Palestinians. I’m furious. When Israel killed 5 Islamic Jihad men at a training center, Israeli officials—military and government—all knew that the response would come. Even an Israeli child who lives in the missile range knows that! But of course Israel ’s officials don’t give a damn about Israeli lives any more than they do about Palestinian ones. This was a ‘good’ time to hit, so till now 11 Palestinians have been killed, as well as one Israeli, and more on both sides injured. And who knows how many more will be killed and injured on both sides before this shooting spree ends! Of course the Palestinians are not standing silent. But for Israel to have killed 5 in supposed response to a single Grad missile that fell in an empty field and harmed no one or thing was totally irresponsible and asking for trouble. So now 4 Israeli children have been deprived a father thanks to Israel ’s acts, and many more Palestinian children have also presumably been deprived a father or brother or grandparent! I’m furious, but that helps no one. Thus I feel helpless. Which also helps no one. Frustrating!
Item 2 returns to a subject that I touched the other day : Israel ’s Hannibal practice—that is to say, its preference for not having to make deals to release captured soldiers. It’s preference, that is, to have them killed rather than captured, even if it means being killed by one ’s own buddies.
In item 3 Gideon Levy shows that extreme right-wingers are taking over the country
Item 4 reports that Anat Kamm, a young woman who—depending on who is telling the story—is either a very naughty person deserving of severe punishment or is a whistle blower doing her fellow country people a service—has been sentenced to 4.5 years in jail.
Item 5 “Refusing to Die in Silence” tells about a new organization to protect Palestinians harvesting their olives. May the day come when all Palestinians will once again (as was true before Israel came into the picture) be able to harvest in peace.
Item 6 brings you more news from Today in Palestine .
Let’s hope that there will be no more killings on either side tonight, or, for that matter, ever.
Dorothy
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1. Al Jazeera
Sunday, October 30, 2011
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/2011103012854318377.html
Israel launches fresh air strike in Gaza
At least two people reportedly killed in latest attack, raising Palestinian death toll to 11 and straining truce.
Israel has launched a fresh air strike on Gaza east of Rafah in which two people have been reportedly killed and another civilian injured, raising the Palestinian death toll to 11.
Sunday’s raid came hours after the Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza said it had accepted a ceasefire agreement.
“The Islamic Jihad has responded [positively] to the truce effort, while it reserves its right to react to any aggression [ by Israel] ,” Abu Ahmad, the spokesman for the movement’s armed wing, Al-Quds Brigades, said in a statement on Sunday.
The spike in violence came as funerals were being held for two Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight. Egypt had been mediating truce efforts over the weekend and late on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has blamed Hamas, which governs Gaza , for the violence.
“The Hamas rules Gaza, he is responsible for Gaza, he is responsible for preventing the firing from Gaza, and for keeping the calm in Gaza, even if the attackers are the Islamic Jihad,” he said.
An Israeli military official said on Sunday that three rockets were fired at its territory after the ceasefire deadline had passed.
Two of the rockets were intercepted by Israel ‘s Iron Dome missile defence system and another slammed into southern Israel causing no casualties or damage, the official said.
The Israeli military said more than a dozen mortars and rockets had been fired from Gaza since midnight.
Doubt over truce
Al Jazeera’s Cal Perry, reporting from Al Shojaya in eastern Gaza said that after the latest barrage of fire between Gaza and Israelis, there was an attempt at a ceasefire.
“We heard Islamic Jihad spokesperson saying that they were going to give 48 hours both to the Egyptians and the Israelis to work out some kind of an agreement.
“But as late as Sunday afternoon, there has been further air strike bringing into question if anyone is going to be able to stop the recent spate of violence.”
Gaza residents reported hearing explosions as Al Jazeera’s sources said Israel had embarked on a new round of attacks on Islamic Jihad targets.
Sunday’s violence continued after the airstrikes a day earlier that killed nine Palestinian fighters in Gaza , and Palestinian rocket fire that killed one person in Israel .
A leader of a Palestinian group, who asked to remain anonymous, told the AFP news agency: “The efforts and intensive contacts led by senior Egyptian intelligence service officials led to a national consensus to restore calm [with Israel ].”
But the AP news agency reported earlier that mediation efforts had failed, citing an anonymous Egyptian official.
Gaza fighters ‘killed’
Adham Abu Selmiya, a spokesman for Gaza ‘s emergency services, said on Saturday that five members of the Al-Quds Brigades were killed and three wounded in a first Israeli attack on a training camp near Rafah.
The dead included a commander named as Ahmed al-Sheikh Khalil, the group said.
Israeli aircraft later struck more targets in Gaza , witnesses and Palestinian officials said, killing four more Palestinian fighters and wounding two more people.
At least two of those were killed as they tried to fire a Grad rocket into Israel , an Al-Quds spokesman said.
An Israeli strike east of Gaza City and two in the area of Khan Yunis, in the south, caused no casualties, witnesses said.
As rockets and mortar shells were fired into Israel , police raised the level of national alert to its second-highest status.
The Israeli military said the Rafah raid had “targeted a terrorist squad in the southern Gaza strip responsible for the firing of military-use projectiles towards the Israeli home front”.
Rocket fire
Within hours of the attack, at least 20 Palestinian rockets and mortar bombs hit different sites in southern Israel , wounding three civilians, Israeli police said.
One rocket slammed into a community centre and another into a block of flats, setting parked cars and gas canisters alight.
Rockets hit the city of Ashdod , the nearby town of Gan Yavneh and the city of Ashkelon , to the south, police said.
The Al-Quds Brigades claimed responsibility for the rocket fire and posted a video on its website which it said showed the launching of five of the rockets.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also claimed responsibility for the attacks.
And a spokesman for Hamas’ Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades blamed Israel for the escalation.
“The occupation is completely responsible for the crime in Rafah and all of the resistance factions cannot leave the shedding of our martyrs’ blood unanswered,” Abu Obeida, Hamas spokesman, said. “We shall discuss the answer to this crime.”
The air raid and earlier rocket attack were the first violent incidents since October 18 hen Hamas repatriated Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier it seized in 2006, in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 jailed Palestinians .
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
2. Haaretz
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Israel ‘s own sorry version of Islamic paradise
The Hannibal policy is an orphan order, having no parents, no commanders; Its existence is even denied, but it is with us nonetheless, hovering like a ghostly spirit that refuses to leave.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-own-sorry-version-of-islamic-paradise-1.392689
By Yossi Klein
Every order has to have parentage. Every order has a source for its authority, someone whom you believe is after your own good and whom you are prepared to obey because you trust him. The Hannibal policy is an orphan order. It has no parents and has no commanders. Its existence is even denied, but it is with us nonetheless, hovering like a ghostly spirit that refuses to leave. It can be encountered in conversations with the worried parents of soldiers. It can be read about on the Internet. It is present anywhere there are soldiers.
The Hannibal policy is not written down anywhere. It is part of the oral law that provides that a dead soldier is better than a soldier taken captive. As a practical matter, this means that soldiers must not be allowed to be taken prisoner. Their comrades, under such circumstances, must shoot them. That’s policy. That’s the order and that’s how it must be understood. But stop! Wait a minute, you say. Have you ever seen such an order? Has anyone seen it? In fact the Israel Defense Forces spokesman denies it exists. Military reporters don’t write about it. It’s not an order. It’s a fabrication.
There is no official confirmation regarding the Hannibal policy. But there isn’t regarding Israel ‘s nuclear capabilities either. So what? It trickles down. It doesn’t exist on paper, but it does in people’s consciousness. It is undisputed that the policy is illegal, but there is a dispute over its morality. The idea was spelled out 25 years ago by then GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Yossi Peled , who is now a cabinet member. He was assisted in its formulation by Col. Ya’akov Amidror, who is now the prime minister’s national security adviser and by Col. Gabi Ashkenazi, who recently completed his service as IDF chief of staff and is now a candidate for some kind of political messiah.
All of them are currently in positions of influence. And all, it can be assumed, would prefer that a soldier be killed rather than captured. It’s possible all of the members of the public are ardent supporters of the Hannibal procedure, unless God forbid the soldier in question is a member of their own families. In a 2003 article in Haaretz by Sara Leibovich-Dar, Peled explained that the intent was not to kill the soldier but to rescue him, but Amidror added: “The army is supposed to maintain the state’s security as the top priority, not the lives of its soldiers.” For his part, Haim Avraham, whose son Sgt. Benny Avraham was abducted in 2000, said: “It’s shocking to think that a soldier would execute his comrade.”
The person who was the sector commander in South Lebanon suggested leaving the decision on a course of action to “the fighter on the ground.” The decision always ends up being passed along to the fighters on the ground, so they are the ones who have to wrack their brains. They can always be accused of faulty interpretation of orders. Over the years, the policy gained force, but it remained vague.
It resurfaces every time a prisoner exchange deal is in the works. Every time one soldier is exchanged for hundreds of terrorists, it is presented as an ideal alternative. The bitterness over the deal for the release of Gilad Shalit raised it again. If the Hannibal procedure had been enacted, people have said under their breaths, we would have avoided this whole mess.
Future messes are the responsibility of more junior ranking people like MKs Zevulun Orlev, Zeev Elkin and Miri Regev. Their proposed law embodies Zionism and patriotism. The Knesset, their proposal provides, would be a full partner in negotiations over a prisoner release. The guiding principle in negotiations over the release of prisoners, they believe, must be one for one : one soldier for one terrorist.
Their proposed law is a kind of political Hannibal policy, but it also reflects the regional context. However much we laughed about the 72 virgins who awaited their “martyred” suicide bombers, now we have our own martyrs for the cause. The bill proposed by Elkin and Co. is just a sorry version of that Islamic paradise. They die awaiting supreme delights. On our side, however, they will happily die because that way it will spare our prime minister humiliating negotiations.
3. Haaretz
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Settlers succeeding in hostile takeover of Israel
Do you really want to live in a country where the heads of the settlement enterprise allocate its lands, plan its nature sites, rule on its laws and are increasingly controlling its lifestyles?
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/settlers-succeeding-in-hostile-takeover-of-israel-1.392687
By Gideon Levy
Phase I was long since declared an unqualified success : The settlers gained control of the occupied territories, using their power and their construction projects to thwart any just arrangement. But anyone who thought they would settle for controlling the West Bank should take a look at Phase II of the plan, which is at its height and already a success story.
Now, after the hostile takeover of the West Bank, comes the takeover of the state. Now that their lust for land has been slightly slaked they have turned their attention to much broader areas than their own considerable domain. From now on, Yesha is truly here. From now on, it’s not enough for them to head the local government councils in the territories – now they’re aiming for seats of power within Israel , so that they can shape its image. After taking the West Bank region of Gush Etzion, now they want the Tel Aviv region of Gush Dan.
They are using the tried-and-true method: acre by acre, outpost by (governmental ) outpost, office by (governmental ) office. A marginal minority, around 100,000 ideological settlers in all, is trying to gain control of a country with a population of seven million. Those turning a blind eye to what is happening now should not be surprised to wake up one day to a different country, just as we woke up one day to a different West Bank .
As usual, the name of their game is occupation, of positions of power rather than territory. Their first target is the Israel Defense Forces: Their soldiers and officers are already nearly everywhere. Now they have turned their sights toward the civilian society. Count on them to rack up resounding victories in this sphere, too, in large measure due to the impotence and complacency of the silent majority. Some recent examples : a settler as head of the Israel Lands Administration, a settler as director of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the first settler is on his way to the Supreme Court. These are sensitive and important positions of power, but they are only the harbingers of autumn that might usher in a winter during which a dangerous and powerful religious, messianic, nationalistic and patently antidemocratic minority will come to run our lives.
Don’t kid yourselves : The settlers are assuming these powerful positions for the express purpose of imposing their ideology. Of course they have the right to apply for them, but anyone with a conscience and anyone who is worried about the character of the state has a duty to try to stop this hostile takeover. There is no need to explain the significance of a settler leader being in charge of the state’s lands or its nature sites and national parks. Bentzi Lieberman and Shaul Goldstein were not appointed on the strength of their skills alone. They were appointed on account of their ideology. But the admission of a settler into the Supreme Court may be the most infuriating of all.
Noam Sohlberg is making his way into the Supreme Court on the wings of his religious beliefs, which have already found expression in his outrageous rulings as a District Court judge – acquitting someone who killed an Arab, releasing rioting settlers and restricting press freedoms. His patrons, chief among then Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, want such a person sitting in the tower of justice. That is exactly why the majority, which opposes the settlers’ modes of action, must object to his appointment. A resident of Alon Shvut, nearly a third of which is on private Palestinian land gained through bald trickery and, later, force or deception, cannot be a judge in a law-abiding country. Not because of the kippa on his head, but rather because he is a criminal in the eyes of international law and universal justice.
Sohlberg the settler comes to the Supreme Court with unclean hands. He will not change the essence of the Supreme Court, which in any case never stood in the way of the occupation: View Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’ incisive, impressive film “Shilton Ha Chok” (“The Law in These Parts” ), and understand the worldview of former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar, one of the figures who gave legitimacy to the occupation – but Sohlberg’s nomination has a deep symbolic meaning.
In case anyone has forgotten : The settlements are a despicable enterprise based on violence, ultra-nationalism and breaking the law. Every settler has this mark of Cain on their brow. Now ask yourselves: Do you really want to live in a country where the heads of this enterprise allocate its lands, plan its nature sites, rule on its laws and are increasingly controlling its lifestyles?
4. Sunday, October 30 2011Independent commentary from Israel & the Palestinian territoriesCategories
http://972mag.com/idf-whistleblower-anat-kamm-to-be-sentenced-sunday/26658/
|Dimi Reider
Court sentences IDF whistleblower Anat Kamm to four and a half years in prison
This post has been updated.
The Tel Aviv District court has sentenced Anat Kamm to four and a half years in prison. The sentence writes the final line in a campaign of scapegoating that has already caused deep and lasting damage to independent Israeli journalism.
Anat Kamm at the Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday (photo: Activestills)
Anat Kamm, the journalist who leaked over a thousands pages of classified IDF documents to Haaretz journalist Uri Blau was sentenced on Sunday by the Tel Aviv District Court to four and a half years in prison. The documents, which Kamm copied while serving as a conscript clerk in the office of then-GOC Central Command Yair Naveh, contained a trove of information, including internal correspondence giving rise to suspicions of war crimes and direct violations of Supreme Court orders committed by senior IDF command. Kamm, who worked as a reporter for new portal Walla from her discharge and until her arrest, was already convicted through a plea bargain last year, with the prosecution agreeing not to ask for more than 9 years in prison for the journalist. A source close to Kamm’s defence team told +972 they are hopeful their client will not be handed a sentence longer than three years imprisonment; I must say I myself expected closer to seven years inside.
As can be seen from the exhaustive timeline compiled by my colleague Noa Yachot, there is a direct line running from the occupation, to executions without trial of suspects who could be detained, to a wider and deeper contempt for the rule of law and the Supreme Court, to the gagging of the press and to persecution of journalists. Kamm’s case is unique in weaving all these elements into a single story; but its real danger lies, of coures, in the unprecedented clampdown on a journalistic source – even more disproportionate than the sadistically vindictive persecution of Mordechai Vanunu.
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5. http://mondoweiss.net/2011/10/refusing-to-die-in-silence-palestinians-resist-settler-violence-during-the-olive-harvest.html